We were lucky to catch up with BriAnne Wills recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi BriAnne, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I just decided to pursue content creation with my Girls and Their Cats account full-time this year. While it’s still too early in the year to know whether or not I’m making a full-time living, I am making money every month! Which I’m very proud of. I have done branded partnerships in the past but GATC has always been my side project. So it will be interesting to see where this year takes me as a full-time job.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started Girls and Their Cats in 2014 as a way to dismantle the crazy cat lady stereotype. It began with photographing cat ladies around NYC and telling their stories—how they adopted their cats, what their cats are like, what being a cat lady means to them, etc. In 2019, I published my first book “Girls and Their Cats” which features photos and profiles from cat ladies in Portland, OR., NYC, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. At the end of 2024, I turned the project into a video-based series called ‘Cat Lady Home Tours’ which is essentially just that. I tour the home of the cat ladies of NYC, they tell their cat stories, show off their cat-themed art, and tell us about their favorite products for their cats. It’s a great way to see how other cat ladies live and what makes their cats’ lives better.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Getting to do what I love and (hopefully) getting paid for it.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I just started posting regularly on Instagram. Because my project is so unique, it got picked up by several outlets like Bored Panda which generated a lot of traffic to my account. I continue to post regularly by taking clips from my long-form YouTube videos and repurposing them for Instagram and TikTok. If the content is good, the views will come!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.girlsandtheircats.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girlsandtheircats/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GirlsandTheirCats
Image Credits
All images are taken by me but if you need names of individuals in the photos, let me know!